Poetry Friday: Langston Hughes

Mamacita says:  I first heard this poem in high school literature. Tenth grade, sophomore year, in Mrs. Helen Chandler’s class, she who taught Claude Akins, the Bedford Celebrity.. In retrospect, I know that we treated her dreadfully. She was quite … Continue reading

Poetry Friday: Haunted Houses

Mamacita says:    I first encountered this poem when I was in the third grade in my favorite teen girl detective series – Judy Bolton, of course! (Nancy Drew is but a pale substitute. . . .)   After the Bolton … Continue reading

Beware the Ides of March

Mamacita quotes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Act 1, scene 2, 15–19 Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music Cry “Caesar!” Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear. Soothsayer: … Continue reading

April is Poetry Month: William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley Invictus Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor … Continue reading

April is Poetry Month: Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe Annabel Lee It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE; And this maiden she lived with … Continue reading

April is Poetry Month: Eugene Field

Eugene Field (The Children’s Poet) Little Boy Blue The little toy dog is covered with dust, But sturdy and staunch he stands, And the little toy soldier is red with rust, And his musket molds in his hands. Time was … Continue reading